


Did you find it hard to breathe?

by furious_hope



Series: Flares [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:41:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21726181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/furious_hope/pseuds/furious_hope
Summary: Lord Selwyn refuses to give the rudest member of the arrogant Black family any satisfaction.
Series: Flares [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1565818





	Did you find it hard to breathe?

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Discussion of torture, suffocating someone. Sort of suicide. Not sure what counts as graphic, so just saying this is. Please let me know if I need to add anything more.

The Stifling Spell was not meant to be applied to witches and wizards, only inanimate objects, but it was a favourite of the Death Eaters, who not only used it for the purposes of torture, but linked their Anti-Apparition Wards into it, so anyone who tried to leave would choke to death. Right now, Thomas Selwyn was glad to be alive after being held under it, though not looking forward to its long term effects. That was if he could get out of here in time for there to be long term effects. 

The children were out at least. He’d managed to cobble together enough lies that the Death Eaters had left his home, ransacked but without finding the anything. Bellatrix had mockingly thanked Thomas, as he lay on the floor trying desperately to breathe, for the invitation. The curtains of his neighbours’ townhouses had twitched tellingly as they left. But Thomas had given most of the children time to smuggle themselves out, and then he’d got the rest of them out before the Death Eaters returned. He was trying to be glad about that and not worry about anything else, but it was not easy. His Shield Charm began faltering and he pushed a final burst of power out. Non-verbal charms had never been his strong suit. He tried to breathe out the incantation, but his throat rebelled, and he just felt a little blood ripple down his mouth. Helga.

Bellatrix was cackling loudly as she approached the spot where Thomas was pinned behind a cabinet and he wanted to shout something derisive about manners at the idiot, but he couldn’t even manage a whisper. Lestrange wasn’t far behind as ever. The Anti-Appariation Wards were definitely up, and he’d used his last Portkey at maximum capacity for the oldest group of Muggleborn refugees. Early on in this nightmarish war, he would have thought himself safe by virtue of his blood. Now - staring at the crazed Death Eaters bearing towards him - he wasn’t so sure.

Thomas gave up on his Shield Charm and ran for the door at full pelter. Bellatrix caught him in their altered version of a Levitation Spell, and he felt his internal organs lurch unpleasantly. He was too old for this. Bellatrix came up to him, and he tried to repress a shiver. The contorted hatred on her face was terrifying, and Thomas could barely breathe. 

“My, my, my doesn’t Lord Selwyn look like a frightened little liar?” Bellatrix leered, and then cuffed her husband when he didn’t respond fast enough. He murmured his assent, something dark gleaming in his dull eyes.

Thomas wanted to spit on Bellatrix, but he only managed to dribble bloody spit down his face. It got in his eye. Bellatrix doubled over, cackling, and that was what did it, as much as anything. Thomas refused to be an object of ridicule for the most unpleasant member of the mad Black family. He was the patriarch of the illustrious Selwyn family, not some fairground clown. He pushed against the Wards, and the Wards, startled by the strength of he is magic, gave. He couldn’t breathe in the emptiness, but he had the satisfaction of watching Bellatrix’s face lit with fury.


End file.
